02-17-2016, 05:48 PM
Here's a link to Part 4.
I lightly sanded the outside of the cabinet with 180 grit by hand in prep. for finishing, making sure to relieve all the edges so the finish would build better around them. To deal with the edges of the BB plywood that make up the door panels I coated them with lightweight joint compound
and then sanded them smooth after it dried.
I filled any holes and defects in the cabinet and moldings with the same stuff. But it's surprising what you don't see until you put a coat of primer on things.
So it was the typical prime, fill, sand, repeat until you can't find anymore defects - and then look it over really good again because there probably are still some you haven't found. So after 2 coats of BIN Pigmented Shellac Primer, and 3 in some spots, the cabinet looked like this.
BIN primer sprays beautifully through my air assisted HVLP gun. It probably sprays well through a gravity feed gun, too, because the viscosity is surprisingly low at about 30 seconds #4 Ford cup for a pigmented product.
I am really glad I didn't glue in the upper shelf. It made spraying a lot easier. I wish I had left both shelves out though because it was still a challenge. I let the primer dry overnight then hand sanded everything again with 400 grit sandpaper and vacuumed it clean. The finish was General Finishes Enduro White Poly, satin sheen. I've used this before and 2 coats is sufficient. But this time some of the finish congealed around the needle/nozzle inside the gun after I let it sit for 2 or 3 hours to let the first coat dry and scuff sand, and that gave me problems with the second coat. It just didn't look perfect, so I sanded it again and sprayed a 3rd coat after completely cleaning the gun. That sprayed beautifully and the cabinet and mirror frame look store bought nice. The GF White Poly has a viscosity of around 100 seconds. It sprays great with my air assisted gun with only a 1.3 mm needle/nozzle, but it would be challenging with a gravity gun. I just want to point that out in case you think it looks good and wanted to try it. You would have to thin it some and use at least a 1.8 mm needle/nozzle.
Assembly was just a matter of sliding in the upper shelf, installing the drawer slides and fronts, and screwing the back on. The bottom molding is still not permanently attached; I'll do that during installation.
I sprayed the drawers with a coat of SealCoat shellac followed by 2 coats of EnduroVar.
That's it. Thanks for following along.
John
I lightly sanded the outside of the cabinet with 180 grit by hand in prep. for finishing, making sure to relieve all the edges so the finish would build better around them. To deal with the edges of the BB plywood that make up the door panels I coated them with lightweight joint compound
and then sanded them smooth after it dried.
I filled any holes and defects in the cabinet and moldings with the same stuff. But it's surprising what you don't see until you put a coat of primer on things.
So it was the typical prime, fill, sand, repeat until you can't find anymore defects - and then look it over really good again because there probably are still some you haven't found. So after 2 coats of BIN Pigmented Shellac Primer, and 3 in some spots, the cabinet looked like this.
BIN primer sprays beautifully through my air assisted HVLP gun. It probably sprays well through a gravity feed gun, too, because the viscosity is surprisingly low at about 30 seconds #4 Ford cup for a pigmented product.
I am really glad I didn't glue in the upper shelf. It made spraying a lot easier. I wish I had left both shelves out though because it was still a challenge. I let the primer dry overnight then hand sanded everything again with 400 grit sandpaper and vacuumed it clean. The finish was General Finishes Enduro White Poly, satin sheen. I've used this before and 2 coats is sufficient. But this time some of the finish congealed around the needle/nozzle inside the gun after I let it sit for 2 or 3 hours to let the first coat dry and scuff sand, and that gave me problems with the second coat. It just didn't look perfect, so I sanded it again and sprayed a 3rd coat after completely cleaning the gun. That sprayed beautifully and the cabinet and mirror frame look store bought nice. The GF White Poly has a viscosity of around 100 seconds. It sprays great with my air assisted gun with only a 1.3 mm needle/nozzle, but it would be challenging with a gravity gun. I just want to point that out in case you think it looks good and wanted to try it. You would have to thin it some and use at least a 1.8 mm needle/nozzle.
Assembly was just a matter of sliding in the upper shelf, installing the drawer slides and fronts, and screwing the back on. The bottom molding is still not permanently attached; I'll do that during installation.
I sprayed the drawers with a coat of SealCoat shellac followed by 2 coats of EnduroVar.
That's it. Thanks for following along.
John
